Human Zoo is an exploration that invites us to look beyond appearances, to observe more deeply and to question the first impressions we form of others. It encourages us to see beyond façades and masks while also exploring the depths of our own souls, without being misled by what we believe we see.

Photography captures an image, a moment frozen in time. Henkes takes us beyond that captured moment, inviting us to discover the true personality behind the image and to explore what remains concealed beneath the surface.Henkes works with existing portraits, from passport photographs to images found in fashion books, where the human face takes centre stage as a kind of mask. Her artistic intervention consists of stripping away that mask and superimposing a new layer, which can be interpreted as the soul beneath it.

The first book in this series is You’re Not the One I Knew. In it, Henkes transforms the images within the book, removing the models’ masks and creating new, abstract faces that seek to reveal the reality concealed beneath their outward appearances: the truth behind a smile, a glance or a pose.